Now, as an added motivation to produce a culinary delight from this chunk of Jim's guts, I have vegan friends who have expressed an interest in trying it. I am not a doctor, but I rather fancy that this sort of protein is unlikely to have the most advantageous effect on the stomach of a long-term vegan, so I am going to research some recipes.

The placenta weighs about 1lb, once one has cut the meat away from the membranes with a sharp knife and discarded the membrane.

The major stumbling block I have is that my children are all under six and need to go to bed relatively early, but the eldest is going to be at ballet class until sixish and I only finish work at half five. This means I need to stick to either some form of flambé or pan seared creation or go the whole hog and prepare a casserole on the night before for Jim to pop in the oven on the day. Casserole recipes, here I come.

Before we go any further, I think we need a gratuitous goatse shot of the frozen placenta, just to keep the b3tards happy.

First of all I need to get the main ingredient out of the freezer. It's always better to have your meat fresh, but with the newest Manley child being kept in the neonatal special care unit for a while, it was not practicable, so it needs time to defrost.

I eventually settled on making a variation on Mike Taylor's The Best Beef Casserole of All Time, the primary variation being that I would be substituting beef for human tissue. Mmm! Flesh!

There are certain other considerations to be included. Matthewparker is simply not going to eat placenta. There is no point pretending that he will, because he won't. I think I need a nice glass of wine.

Because of this I need to supply an alternate meal for him and also something for Rowan who is a lacto-ovo piscatarian and, for once, is more of an inconvenience than the vegans to cook for. Sausages and the George Foreman grill seem to be the answer. Veggie sausages for Rowan (since he has offered to supply his own) and Impala sausages for Matthewparker.

Now for the vegan side of things. To avoid using butter to grease the casserole dish I use Pure, which comes with a vegan logo, Omega 3 and 6 and a space hopper on the label. What more could anyone want from an edible grease? Well, tasting less revolting would be a start. My sister tells me that it's very nice once one gets used to it, but frankly I am damned if I want to. I'd rather gargle with lard.

We also cannot use most varieties of wine because, inexplicably, producers include animal products in them. I also eschew vegan stock (for much the same reasons as I would not normally buy Pure) in favour of bitter. I am not sure how vegan or not bitter might be, so I take special care to choose something which has ingredients I understand.

That all sorted (there is no problem with the onions, carrots and mushrooms that I can see) it is time to get the defrosted placenta out of the bag. Of course, if you want to look in more detail at these images, they have a click for big functionality, or you can have a perusal of my flickr stream.

As has been pointed out (apologies to Riverghost for behaving like the editor of Zoo or Nuts here), it's looking rather chuffed with itself.

It looks pretty much as it did when I last saw it, although I was somewhat distracted at that time. Remember the nice glass of wine you saw earlier? No you don't, you remember me saying I'd like a nice glass of wine. What you saw was a nice glass of Jim's blood. Lovely stuff!

Anyway, it's time to sort things out, so I drained the blood, as you can see, and rinsed off the placenta, ready to start butchering. That said, it looks fairly palatable just as it is, don't you think?

Either way, it's time to start getting the meat away from the gristle and tubes. The first job is to get the sack turned inside out so the meat can be seen, which, since there is already a large baby sized hole in it, is no problem.

We need to try and work the main body of the placenta away from the membranes of the sack. If you want to make jokes about the G-Spot then now is the time, it never gets old.

Once it is clear I can set about cutting the placenta away. Is it ironic that, having fed her for 9 months, the placenta, through Jim's milk, will be feeding my youngest again. No, I don't think it is. Never mind.

Once this is done I can finally begin to see proper meat. I know from past experience that the toughest bit has yet to come, but I am still excited to get this far. I am struggling with the mixture of photography and bloody hands now, but I can't let you down now.

The actual meat is very much akin to liver (to some extent the placenta serves a similar service, I suppose) but it is attached to the sack in small chunks, almost like pre-cubed meat seared to a pan.

These are soft, again much like liver, and so cutting them leads to waste and they need to be individually torn from the membrane, which takes a lot of time and a surprising amount of effort.

In amongst the meat are blood clots. Much as I enjoy black pudding, I think we have to draw the line somewhere.

Slowly we go from a complete, trimmed placenta

to a slack handful of waste

and a lovely bowlful of prepared meat

I suppose that we have time for one last gratuitous gore shot before I start cooking

Righty-ho. First grab a nice casserole dish. This was a wedding present from one of my wife's friends' mothers. I reckon that it probably came from Taunton.

As you can see, it has been greased, but not with butter, as mentioned previously. To this I added a small layer of carrots.

Then a layer of Onions (cut into eighths)

The main ingredient

another layer of carrots and some button mushrooms

Some more onions, chopped into eighths, and a good handful of herbs, predominantly oregano, parsley and basil

BEER! (this is getting dull now - I was going to make an animated gif of the casserole being produced, but I just couldn't be bothered in the end. Feel fortunate that I have already dropped five or six stages here)

Oh sod it, then I have a picture of the tomato purée on top and then the tomatoes (my 3 year old has grown quite a crop of tomatoes this year, so well done her) and then I added some pepper and called it a casserole.

So now I pop a lid on it, chuck it in the refrigerator to marinade and leave it for 20 hours or so. Lovely.

When I return to it everything is looking about as perfect as it could be. Jim puts it in the oven for 3 hours at about 140°C whilst I am still labouring away over a hot batch of fresh SEO. When I get home I put on some carrots (although not as many as I had hoped - I shall be boycotting the fruit and veg stall outside St George's market from here on in and suggest that you do the same) and cabbage and then our vegans arrive with a simply massive rhubarb crumble and a sackful of potatoes from their allotment. Logistically this is a major achievement since they have arrived on bicycles.

The spuds go in to boil, I top up the casserole with a smidgen of boiling water and I put on some impala and veggie sausages for the queasy. Where's the damned bottle opener?

The casserole is served. I am short of a chair - well the hell has that gone? I have to go next door to the student house to borrow one - they seem to want an invite, but I find myself disinclined to let on what it is I am having for dinner. Given that I am happy to tell the world I cannot explain this and will later make amends by giving them this url.

Please excuse the invisible children, but you can see that it was well received. In fact all we had left was potatoes at the end of the night. You can see Matthewparker here, clearly not eating placenta. I don't know, what sort of weirdo doesn't chow down on his friend's womb excretions, eh?

Here we can see why butter is better than other greases when it comes to being non-stick. There seemed to be a reluctance to suggest that the meal was anything but normal. Indeed there were many compliments on the cooking, where I expected squirming.

Our vegan friends enjoyed the meat and had no noticeable side effects. I had secretly sort of enjoyed the idea that, after nearly a decade without meat, the protein rush would mess with their bowels, but it was not to be.

I leave you with a photograph of the rhubarb crumble and the knowledge that I won't be doing this again for at least 3 years or so.

All in all, an excellent evening. A light liver taste, very palatable, both my children asked for seconds and Kate was almost aggressive in her demands for more of my wife's flesh. There's a video in the making if ever there was one.

Eventually we all wandered off, slightly drunk and full to the gunnels, a good time had by all.

Method:Heat the oil in a flat bottomed panMix the flour, salt and spices wellCube the placenta, roll the cubes in the spiced flour and set it aside. Once the oil is smoking hot, fry the onions and garlic for 2 minutes until they begin to brownAdd spiced placenta cubes and sear for a further minute.Add water, a little at a time, until the placenta and onions are boiling in a placenta gravy.Add barley if required, depending on number of guests.simmer for 8 minutes or until done.

1. Chop the onion and the pepper & crush the saltines into crumbs.2. Combine the placenta, onion, pepper, saltines, bay leaves, white and black pepper, garlic and tomato sauce.3. Place in a loaf pan, cover then bake for one and a half hours, occasionally pouring off excess liquid.4. Serve and enjoy!

--------------------------------------------

Placenta Cocktail

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fresh, raw placenta8oz V-8 juice2 ice cubes1/2 cup carrot

Method: blend at high speed for 10 seconds. Serve. A tasty thirst quencher!

226 comments:

Thanks Manley, for it was a very delicious treat. "Livery" was my verdict, though I think the chance for some Black Pudding should not have so easily been passed on. Especially with the left over potato and cabbage - now there would have been a breakfast!

@Jason: Unfortunately not.@Blackett: I'd go with the swan, I love it. I'm not a vegan, it's bloody daft, but I really wanted to watch them chow down on womb juice and I couldn't see that happening if I put butter in it. If I have another one I'll post some to you.

Hugh, whilst having preceded this, was not original either, placentophagia has been practised for millennia. Actually, Hugh's placenta party is of interest for another reason altogether, as mentioned within the post above, which is the censorship which it received.

My twist on this is the introduction of a vegan element, but in any case this is pertinent enough to the theme of my blog that to have excluded it from my witterings would have been out of keeping with the experiment I am conducting.

I put it to you that you are either SSG (in which case I salute you) or a blithering idiot with running sores on the inside of your enormous thighs.

First of all, I would like to apoligise for calling you a cunt last night. It was a typographical error. I'd intended to call you a cnut.

Secondly - how can you possibly state that 'placentophagia has been practised for millennia'? I'm reasonably certain that little archaeological evidence exists to support this supposition, and I'd imagine that historical writings are fairly silent on the subject, too.

Furthermore, historical modes of behaviour tend to have drifted down to within living memory. Even the most disturbing and disgusting - whilst mostly abandoned - have, to some extent, become totemic, and are still celebrated in ritual. I have yet to hear of any that symbolically recreate the ingestion of the placenta.

Last of all; 'millennia' would imply at least two thousand years. With such a timescale, archaeologists have a hard job establishing basic facts of life - let alone minor details such as the (frankly grim) consumption of the placenta.

I'll give you that it was probably commonplace long ago in our evolutionary history - but anything more than that, you're simply making up. Granted, it's probably been de rigueur somewhere, somewhen, but in all probability, the modern resurgence of this rank habit is a 'trendy' western phenomenon, probably dating no later than the sixties.

As an addendum; the sores on my thighs were left by chins of the scores of wimmins lining up to suck my todger. It's not a bad thing.

As a post-addendum - how in the name of fuck can it possibly be considered vegan?

I think that the fact that people stopped doing it for a bit before a resurgence should not negate the fact that it's been going on for, in the words of Arthur Grantham (Chair, Oxford Historical Society, 1042-1968) a fuck of a long time.

I also clearly refute the idea that I am doing this because of some desire to be 'trendy'. I am clearly merely exploring my attention whore side.

I thought veganism was all about not ingesting animal produce, rather than only eating that which was freely given. It does raise an interesting point, though; could Armin Meiwes be considered vegan?

Re Mr Grantham - he was a genius in his day, I'll admit. But given that he lived to nine-hundered and fourty-four years of age, you have to give that his mind might have wandered a bit at the end. He could have been wrong.

On an absolutely more genuine note - you seem much nicer here. Your blog is amusing, you are articulate, and your response to my lame trolling was quite refined; so why do you have to be such a grumpy, negative sod on b3ta?

Best of all it raises all sorts of questions about what we do and do not eat... what is disgusting and why. Fascinating

I linked to you on Reddit.com, but it's languishing without votes. Can I request anyone so inspired to go there and vote it up? The downside would probably be lots more Anonymous posts telling you you're sick fucks without feeling any need to explain why. Self-awareness has never been very popular.

B3ta is a place where I am fairly well known by those who know me. Here anyone can read this and so I am honest - on b3ta those who I care about know that I speak tongue-in-cheek, so I know that they will see it as a joke.

I am now most intrigued to know who you are. This is likely to last in excess of 35 minutes.

Armin Meiwes was not vegan because he also ate beef, but your point is a valid one. If the luncheon had given permission for his remains to be eaten after death, say following an execution, then I think that probably yes, this would be conceivably vegan in nature. As Meiwes first slaughtered his supper I feel that he died in order to produce food so that, even though his meat was freely given, the taking of life for the purpose perhaps negates that.

As an addendum (I do like my addendi), and to answer your question - I'm nobody on b3ta, which was why I chose not to confront you there. You have history, I do not, and it would have only ended one way - with me being forced to make a new account.

I'm just some poor chump who likes the general feel of the place, and is quietly attempting to integrate, and contribute. My photoshopping is not great - I know that, and I made it very clear with my first post. I'm an absolute amateur.

Going out of your way to label my efforts as 'shit' ticked me off a little bit. I know I'm shit, and I will freely admit to being shit - but no-one's born with an inherent knowledge of layers and the like. It's all learned, and we all have to go through a shit period before becoming good (or, at least, less shit).

My b3ta incarnation is not important - but consider this; if you are interested, and can't work it out from the above, then you probably accuse too many people of being shit.

Ah! I indeed have no idea who you might be, but if the response which riled you so was this:

'This is a bit shit really.'

Then you are being riled only at the expense of your own sanity. It's just something I randomly type after various posts.

Right then, glassco.cx tells me that I have said this to only 4 people in the last month who I don't know well:

1) Scarecow: no, I like his work too much and he's know I was taking the piss.

2) empois: Possible, I actually did think that the Madeline picture was shit. Being a father (as is obvious from the above post) I find that child abuse jokes have to actually be funny to warrent posting.

3) inigo: as above - I fancy that you are too literate to be either of these.

4) I am left assuming that you must be Happy Phantom, who did not reply to my response and who made a really quite adequate TOAP about ginger people.

I do hope you weren't too offended by my silliness. I feel quite strongly that people should only be offended by instances of actual nastiness. That said, if you hang around on b3ta long enough I will probably be nasty to you.

Incidentally, I have written to the Vegan Society this morning, as follows:Good morning,

I have a question concerning the nature of freely given meat. Firstly, and primarily, my question surrounds placentophagy. If my wife freely gives her placenta to be eaten and we eat it, does this fall within the remit of vegans?

As an aside, (and I ask this only out of curiosity and doctrinal confusion - it is unlikely to ever become an issue!) his other diet aside, could Armin Meiwes be considered vegan?

My personal thoughts were that, if the 'donor' had given permission for his remains to be eaten after death, say following an execution, then I think that probably yes, this would be conceivably vegan in nature, but as Meiwes first slaughtered his supper, as it were, I feel that the donor died solely in order to produce food so that, even though his meat was freely given, the taking of life for the purpose perhaps negates that.

As I say, I genuinely wish to know the answer to the placenta question and am interested in thoughts on the Meiwes argument.

Well sir, I'm both impressed and nauseaed. I was curious when I saw the heading, but the pictures just made me nauseaed.

If I never saw the pictures and was only served the finished product though, I might try it.

Congratulate on the new addition to your household anyway and it's good that you got a pound of flesh out of it to fortify you against the impending loss of sleep, haha.

In China, /parts/ of China (seeing as China has over 56 nationality), aborted fetuses are sometimes brought home by the nurses or sold under the table as a health delicacy. Meh, waste not. I'll actually be more worried about this, then the placenta though. Since, what if they used drugs during the abortion?

There you go again, becoming automatically scathing on the subject of the unfinished answer. Personally, I suspect that the vegan would have liked to tackle both of the points you raised - she simply ran out of energy halfway through.

Bless.

Oh, and cheers for callously destroying my protective veneer of anonymity - I shall have to be polite now.

Still... All in all, trolling your blog has been an unexpected pleasure.

I myself thought about eating the placenta, after giving birth and throwing up soon after from the epidural I decided against it.

But this is an awesome thing to do, and yes it has been done for many centuries by man, and more commonly by animals.

And hey, meat is expensive these days! If Placenta were a packaged meat then it would be highly expensive from all the preparation alone, never mind the fact that it's availability is much less than that of Beef.

Well done man! I seriously wish I hadn't chickened out now! Looks yummy!

prolly not disusting because people ate it. Since I'm among folks who will try just about anything once, i'd be there.

On the other hand, the last time I had vegetarian friends who decided to go WTF and eat everything (sausages, eggs, bacon, etc. breakfast stuff) at a Missouri Bead & Breakfast because that was what was offered, had rather alarming side effects until they did the thought problem....

They've since passed into regular but responsible meat eating (portion control , etc). the main excue was health reasons--but they've been refuted by some minor physical problems, like really dry skin, that cleared up after resuming eating animal protein.

Interestingly, with only the one exception of myself (and possibly my children, although I don't think that they are old enough to make a decision yet), the entire party was made up of atheists, to the best of my knowledge.

After reading through the article in its entirety and then some comments, I just have to voice my opinion.

As for the actual act of eating a placenta, I personally probably wouldn't do it, but I have no qualms about others doing it. While I admit the gore pictures were pretty graphic, so are pictures of animals getting gutted and cleaned. This is the first real insight into placentaphagia that I've seen.

I must say that it is rather amusing reading comments from close-minded assbites. If people disagree with it and other similar things, get the hell off the internet. The internet is a free place where you can do close to anything you want. I support its vast diversity whether I agree with the material or not. That's just the way things go for me.

A message for all those haters, prudes, trollers, etc: Fuck off. If you don't like it, leave, the internet will be better without you.

Thanks for an unconventional, rather grotesque article that amused me for the day.

I am literally laughing out loud right now. Great blog, and great comments. The whole thing is pretty gross, but if you offered me a forkful of placenta casserole, I'd probably give it a shot. What can I say, I'm a sick fuck too.

@Elaine: Haha! I am a fan of Adoption - I grew up with many foster brothers and sisters and it's much nicer for a child to have a family which they can call their own. Even those who stayed with us for 9 years would benefit more from calling someone 'dad'.

I found it interesting reading about your experience and although not to my taste, each one to their own. I've just recently become a father for the second time and saw the placenta lying on the floor of the birthing room and I did think about the fact that some people consumed the placenta after birth. I remembered my mom saying that fishermen from the country I am from used to eat the placenta in the belief that it protected them from drowning. Stupid I know, but it was concidered to work. It was best if they ate it or as some did, they dried it out and kept it with them at sea. I am not entirely certain whether this is true or not, but I do come from South Africa and the African's do have some very bizarre beliefs, as do many other nations. All the best with the new addition.

All you people saying 'YOU SICK FUCK! VEGANS DON'T EAT HUMAN MEAT!' and the like, you're wrong there - placenta is a natural source of protein, nothing gets killed to produce it, therefore it is vegan friendly.

Animals eat placenta, and humans are animals, so the only sick fucks are those who refuse to be one with the world, and live their lives superficially and prudently with no respect for those who threat the natural world with the respect it deserves.

Whilst I appreciate your comments, I am afraid that you are wrong on one point. I actually wrote to the Vegan society and, whilst they simply avoided half of my question, they are very much of the opinion that placenta is not vegan.

If you look at their (freshly updated) list of vegan criteria you will find that it now contains the listings of "Human-Derived Substances - eg keratin, placenta" in the excluded section.

I'm going to go and point this out to you elsewhere now, just out of badness.

This must be the third time i've come to re-read this, it is interesting and thought provoking.

They just took away Mrs Thors placenta after out little one was born, do you have to request to keep it? mind you saying i don't think Mrs thor would have been up for eating it as she avoids red meat and i think i may have had trouble trying to get enough people convinced that it would be a good idea for them to come to dinner.

For the time being i'll stick to a big mixed grill with liver and kidneys.

There's nothing wrong with this practice. What happens to the placenta otherwise? It just gets thrown out. At least he didn't CONSUME his newborn as alot of other creatures do. And it's not so much flesh at all... but a temporary organ present during pregnancy to nourish the fetus. So, those of you that call this cannibalism... is the baby a cannibal, too? Hmmm...

just finished reading the post and all its comments and have a few observations and thoughts.. first, this HAS reached the US as you suggested. i was redirected from ana voog's website (anacam.com or something) as she hinted at doing the same. secondly those people calling you sick fucks are just being close-minded. they have been conditioned to think a certain way and so thier reaction makes sense, same as if i told people i was going to fry and eat a bald eagle they'd go into a frenzy saying i hated america or love killing beautiful animals or who knows what else. also, does this "vegan scociety" govern what you can eat and not eat? i thought vegan was a lifestyle choice, not a community with rules and regulations.. for being athiests it sounds like you've got the next best thing to a church... anyway kudos for being different and not letting a bunch of redneck fucks hold you back.

I didn't choose to save or consume the placenta that nourished my son (I find it odd to call it "his placenta" or "my placenta", since it seems to have belonged to both of us), but I think that next time around, if we should be so lucky, I am going to request to keep it and use it to nourish a new tree.

Interesting post, and I loved reading your responses to the trolly sorts. Very entertaining. Have a lovely day, and good luck with the (as previously tagged) miniManleys!

25 July 2007 20:48 Anonymous said... Fuck man, that made me chunder just lookin at it. please dont do this type of shite. it borders on cannibalism. fuckin wankers got nothin else better to do than eat that crap. ugh.

As I am from the U.S. I have decided to point out to you that at least some of these people are from your side of the pond, since we don't say "shite" and I can't say I have ever heard anyone say "chunder", so I assume thats one of yours too. Also it would appear you got some excellent notes from Spain. "ME DAS PUTO ASCO DESDE HOY ME HAGO VEGETARIANO PUTO GUIRI LOCO" if I may " You are fucking gross, as of today i have become vegetarian, crazy fucking [slightly derrogatory word for any person who is not from Spain]>"

Er, I mean fantastic article, and something I will definitely try myself, assuming I can persuade someone to make a placenta for me.

On the subject of fellatio covered above, I used to live with a vegetarian girl who positively went out of her way to perform fellatio* as she claimed it was one of her major sources of protein...the other being eggs, though of course that option would be unavailable to someone of a vegan disposition. It makes me wonder whether there's a higher ratio of swallowers to spitters amongst ladies (and gents who are into that sort of thing of course) who have forsworn meat?

Lol Its Not Sick Etc... Well It Is But Jolly Gd Viewing :P I Remember Looking For A 'Centa Recipe In School And Getting A Telling Off Rofl... Daft Bint Of A Teacher Stole the Idea Of Looking It Up Then Used It In A Lesson And Made The Kiddys Of Younger Ages In Sexual Education Classes Search Around Google For Recipes :P :S :D ^^ Good Show Tho... :D

Woah, holy guacamole! I'm a proud British Woman, from the North west (Home of the words wanker, shite, bollocks, t'oreet and ney) and i have to say, although this article is definately an internet high, i was impressed by your reponses to the trolls. I play NwN, and i still have no idea how best to get around a troll. You just showed me how - Sharp wit. Next time i roll up against one of those chaps, i'll break out the sarcasm.

As for the new sprout, well done old boy! I had a baby myself last year in April (The 7th) but didn't even consider saving the ladybeef. I can't say i would ever do that... Just for the whole.. Religious, should i eat part of myself... thing... Anyway, well done for the adventure. More gore shots next time!

I would like to say tho that it doesn't matter what you eat, everything came from the earth and will eventually go back to the earth when we die.

As for people saying it is wrong to eat a placenta?? If I were to go to India and eat a cow I would be eating a sacred animal and would get accused of some wrong doing, likewise if I were to say I had been to France and tried horse some people would call me sick because they maybe have a horse as a pet, but that was my choice.

So my point is eating the placenta was your choice and you have my respect!!!. Eventually it will end up back in the earth anyhow.

Hmmm, my husband did eat my placenta (in fact both) but not in a casserole he just ate it raw. Never considered making a casserole for family out of it. Your take seems a bit on the comedic side rather than the more serious nature.

In my opinion, the way of thinking of it is what makes the big difference between the sick and the unusual, and your stand is just what I'd describe as far from natural disposition (=sick?). Myself, even if I did it, I wouldn't describe it as eating a part of my wife, and it's this way of looking at it that repels me most, especially that this isn't necessarily the case. For example, someone can argue that this is, in its current form, a product of the body, which is formerly an organ but a one that served a temporary purpose and is designed to be disposed by the body after that (and hence is no longer a part of the body). This is, in a sense (neglecting the fact that it's human tissue and blood), similar to eating human feces in case you thought they were good for the health... Which is totally okay to me as long as you do not claim that they look nice, smell good or are delicious (ignoring or hiding what people naturally feel towards these). That is, I was offended most by your unnatural attitude, by you inviting people to "eat the ... of your ...", by the amount of amusement you seemed to have while handling something that is as repulsive and pertains to no eaten meat like this, and by the silly jokes you made about fresh meat, the meat becoming expensive these days, and about black pudding made out of clots of blood, which's what disgusted me most... Much more than the act itself.

In my religion, people are obliged to follow very strict rules upon slaughtering animals. For example, the killing of an animal must be for the sole purpose of nourishment, must be done very quickly with a well-sharpend knife, and must be done in surprise and remotely from fellow animals, so that they do not see their fellow animal being slaughtered. I claim that I, while following these rules and possessing the mental constitution brought by them is indeed more human -while allowing myself to benefit from the gift of meat, than you... Claiming vegetarianism and in the same time enjoying this sick reasoning regarding "freely-given meat".

As someone who is mostly vegan (I only eat eggs from friends' hens, as they keep them for eggs only, and not to be slaughtered for meat) I have always been a bit curious about eating placenta, and have indeed posed the question, 'is eating placenta vegan?' on a vegan web forum before now.

I couldn't really be arsed to prepare it myself - plus I think touching meat after all these years would be difficult for me, even if it is cruelty-free meat - but if I knew someone who was doing this, and they offered me a bit of placenta casserole, I definitely wouldn't pass up the chance to try some.

As for people calling you a sick f*ck and all that nonsense, they need to GET OVER themselves. Honestly. What nonsense. Either everyone stops eating all kinds of meat - animals or placenta - or everyone eats any kind of meat and doesn't have a problem with it. This wishy-washy-wanky inbetweeny nonsense that Joe Public indulges in...'oh beef and chicken is fine, but not snake, or swan, or squirrel' is just plain mind conditioning. Dumb f*cks.

It's the attitude, not the act, Mary. I really, really appreciate the amount of readiness to do what is believed to be the most righteous by people like you, regardless of the burden of the commitment (which is huge, in the case of a vegan). However, as much as I object against not appreciating this really virtuous motive (regardless of the correctness of the stand), I object against counteracting natural human disposition (hiding what someone naturally feels towards acts or things, such as the natural human feelings towards injustice and clear abuse, which must have motivated the invention of law). I insist that a raw steak that is blood-free is not similar to this, with regard to what the bulk of people feel towards it (which could be a byproduct of the education, like you said, but we can never tell... So this is no execuse to hiding or ignoring what you naturally feel). I tell you, my religion prohibits the consumption of pork, in all forms, still however, I do not think that it's inedible or disgusting... It is as eligible for eating as beef, chicken or fish. I have seen some individuals preparing placenta for eating, and the amount of spices and vegetables used have always indicated that they needed a lot of help to obfuscate its presence, whereas most people can easily eat rare-cooked beef/pork. But hey, I am not all against beating that amount of natural dislike; I am only against ignoring it while doing so. Because like you said, everything can be a byproduct of the education, and myself cannot be sure that this is not the case here. However, and only as a flying comment, I am not sure if counteracting this amount of natural dislike for placenta so that someone can consume it raw won't qualify them for eating other people alive, where I consider the natural disposition serving a purpose (except for the times of severe hunger). Nevertheless, this doesn't mean, at all, that I consider this practice relating to cannibalism. I don't.

Then let's say that my stand is unconventional to you, since you were not able to categorize it. But isn't it simplistic to assume that all people should fall into a few number of categories? for example vegan and not vegan, etc.

The fact that my stand seems unconventional to you doesn't mean that you did not understand my arguments. Here is a summary of my beliefs:

1. Being a vegan proves unprecedented willingness to do what is thought to be morally correct.2. Being a vegan is not correct, in my opinion, though the motive behind it is so virtuous.3. Eating placenta in pricinple is irrelevant to "right" and "wrong".4. However, hiding man's common natural feelings towards anything (act or thing) is "very wrong".5. There is a common, natural amount of human dislike for eating living tissues saturated with blood, raw.6. There is a common, natural human repugnance against eating other people, even those who died naturally (a.k.a. cruelty-free meat).

And then comes the conclusion (flowing from and within the circle of "my personal beliefs"):

7. Eating placenta while making jokes about eating part of someone else (6), and pretending huge liking even in raw state (5), all fall in (4) and hence is something I don't like and think is not right. This is what I mean by saying that "It's the attitude, not the act".

"let's say that my stand is unconventional to you, since you were not able to categorize it."

Let's not. It is not that I cannot categorise it, it is that I did not understand you. This is merely a communication issue and one which I hope we can overcome.

"The fact that my stand seems unconventional to you doesn't mean that you did not understand my arguments."

Indeed not, but none the less I did fail to understand your arguments.

"1. Being a vegan proves unprecedented willingness to do what is thought to be morally correct."

I utterly disagree. Being a vegan shows, in some, a willingness to suffer personal inconvenience for a moral issue, but on today of all days, that is Remembrance Sunday, it is easy to think of many, many better examples of self sacrifice for moral principles. Additionally many vegans (and I am not judging vegans on this point, merely highlighting that there are a large numbers of examples of this) are becoming part of an association, rather than following personal beliefs.

"2. Being a vegan is not correct, in my opinion, though the motive behind it is so virtuous."

I do agree on both counts - I eat meat, but understand the motives and find them to be laudable. Certainly I have much more respect for a vegan than for someone who eschews veal but drinks cow's milk, for example.

"3. Eating placenta in principle is irrelevant to "right" and "wrong"."

I have no idea what this means. I think that eating placenta is not a moral issue, it is just a choice, like wearing brown shoes or growing a beard.

I would not say that it was 'very wrong', but I agree that going against your own beliefs is not in keeping with a sense of integrity, and integrity is something which I hold dear. Of course, there is a natural feeling to avoid humiliation which I would say only the weak follow where the right thing to do is to face issues, not hide from them.

"5. There is a common, natural amount of human dislike for eating living tissues saturated with blood, raw."

No. There is an institutionalised, taught dislike of this in some cultures. Man did not evolve with a knowledge of fire and raw meat was once very appealling to man. Indeed the very fact that I am not repulsed by raw meat shows clearly that it is not common to the nature of all men, but nurtured by some.

"6. There is a common, natural human repugnance against eating other people, even those who died naturally (a.k.a. cruelty-free meat)."

Again, whilst I share this repugnance, there are too many examples of cannibalism to suggest that this is entirely unaffected by culture.

I did not eat the placenta raw, but I was interested by it and did not dislike preparing it, any more than preparing any other meal. I make jokes about most things in life - to ascribe some extra importance to a placenta seems bizarre to me.

You are welcome to disagree with the eating of the placenta, but to suggest that I faked my enjoyment of this is absurd - The food tasted good and was relatively easy to prepare. My guests came through interest and a desire to try something new. You may feel a disgust at my wife's placenta, but I do not and I do not really understand why you feel that you are in a better position to decide this than I am?

This is absolutely fascinating. Kudos to you and your friends for being far more open minded than I can bring myself to be. And congrats on the new addition to your family!

For all the trollers, I do wish you would all just live and let live. It's folks like you who just dissolved all of the same-sex marriages in California. Happy families that are no longer because the closed-minded think they know better than those living in the situation.

Unless Manley here is going to force you to eat his wife's placenta, it's really none of your business. So keep your negativity and name-calling to yourself!

"Being a vegan shows, in some, a willingness to suffer personal inconvenience for a moral issue, but on today of all days, that is Remembrance Sunday, ..."

It doesn't serve the context to compare moral veganism with other examples of sacrifice because, the time is different and so are the ways in which people's morality show in their everyday life conduct, and since morality is what matters, not the manifestation of this morality, let's not lessen the value of true veganism based on the lesser sacrifice, because in deciding upon the value of any moral act, there exist many, other factors. A true vegan is someone who's voluntarily willing to suffer this permanant personal inconvenience morally, where not doing such is considered super natural by the society today (i.e. eating meat and benefiting from the animal products), and where the victims in this moral case are by no means capable of defending their own rights... Which are few aspects that add to my appreciation of the morality standing behind true vegan practice. Those, however, who are just becoming a part of an association are excluded by the nature of this discussion, even though they are understood to exist.

Hence, I utterly agree with you on that point. It's too soon at this stage to start disagreeing with one another.

"3. Eating placenta in principle is irrelevant to "right" and "wrong"."

I have no idea what this means. I think that eating placenta is not a moral issue, it is just a choice, like wearing brown shoes or growing a beard.

Irrelevant means "inapplicable", that is, you cannot describe eating placenta as "right" or "wrong" because, these qualifications are just inpplicable to the act of eating placenta (you may, however, still describe it as "disgusting" :^P).

Hence, we cannot dream of more agreement on this point, either.

I am happy that we agree so far, three points out of six makes fifty percent, which is very good, given that we just started this conversation. Of course, you can still claim that I faked agreement at the point where you think no such agreement exist, but I am honest while thinking that I totally agree with you so far, and so I will move forward to the main point of conflict.

There is a need to define what I mean by human natural feelings, however, I do not yet know how to do that, but since I realize that I do not mean man's conscious beliefs, I don't think that what I mean has anything to with man's "integrity", at least with how the word is usually used. What I mean by "natural feelings" has more to do with the set of man's unconscious beliefs, or the mind constitution brought by what I consider to be "proper, civilized education". Hence, it's apparent that at this point (point 4), I started relying on a concept that is generally not considered globally-valid. This doesn't mean that we cannot proceed in this interesting conversation, and that this is the furthest someone can go in such a controversial topic, but this will most probably need some planning from now on, in the sense of trying to come up with a logical approach that is reasonably correct, and most importantly, accepted by you and me.

As to my thinking in achieving this, I had the idea that I may ask you a question, and the answer will then guide me into suggesting a logical approach that you may consider valid.

I would like to ask you about what you feel towards this act: "someone, an adult, who kisses her mother on the mouth in situations where it's more customary to hug or kiss on the cheek". Do you consider not accepting this practice as normal to be institutionalism, in the sense that the way in which people express their emotions in different situations is something we learn and with it we learn what they mean, or do you tend to believe that there is an amount (even if small) of incorrectness in this practice that is globally-valid and thus can be argued upon regardless of circumstance?

I hope that you will give this question some time, because with regard to our unconscious judgement, we tend to feel things and not have clear ideas about them, which necessitates some unhurried speculation. Moreover, if you feel that you are happy with the amount of agreement achieved so far and that you do not wish to continue this conversations, this is totally understood and I promise that I will not annoy you by my writings any further :^)

Okay, then do you think that you doing this, while being uncomfortable with it like you said, is wrong? Or at least can be described as "right" or "wrong" in principle? (Given that we were not able to apply these qualifications to the act in its generality)

And kissing them while supposedly having this, aforementioned association, of which someone is not fully aware, but only uncomfortable with the act... Could it be wrong to an extent?

That is, I am not investigating whether overcoming this mental association would be a good thing, or whether it is justified, I am only investigating whether committing to something like this while having this constitution of mind can be morally wrong.

from Portugal I say: you stupid freaks motherfuckers "let-us-try-this-new-and-non-regular--thing-because-we-are-really-cool" hippie shit! Well it's your life but you just screwed it. what the fuck do you have in your mind you asshole? Freak as it cames, geez!... take care!

Wow that actually looks delicious, my wife is pregnant again, I am a total vegetarian and I begged her to let me cook up and enjoy our first daughter's placenta.. Personally I believe its a beautiful ritual and I mean its healthy and seriously what else are you going to do with it, they just threw it away I was horrified, but who was I to complain I am just the daddy, well this time I will be a little more vocal

This is the very blog that inspired my sister and I to eat her placenta in the first place, too!!Your step-by-step photos showing the preparation were great! Unfortunately, I couldn't find the site the day of preparation, so just had to make do with what I remembered. I did a more basic stew-on-noodles type dish, but it still came out very tasty and nourishing, nonetheless!There's a bit of back-and-forth going on over at momlogic.com on the topic now, but I hope it does inspire people the same way you've inspired so many! Thanks again!

As a troll, I can honestly say that the main reason why I find this repulsive is because the unconventional nature of consuming placenta is vastly unaccepted socially, and frankly, makes me feel nervous - like all accepted boundaries are gone, and that blank future of what other weird and unimaginable things you might attempt is unnerving and makes me uneasy.

Also, how has everyone completely managed to miss asking about links to Scientology or why your wife's name is Jim?

I, for one, chose to encapsulate my placenta for consumption. The wonderful thing about capsules is that they are very "user friendly" and last indefinitely. So, this is a service that I offer to mothers in my community. I was trained by a woman named Jodi Selander of Las Vegas. She has founded an organization called PlacentaBenefits.info, the mission of which is to spread the word about placentophagy and its tremendous benefits to new mothers. I would recommend that anyone who is interested, and including the Anonymous commenters who were so taken aback by your feast, go to the site to find out why someone would do something like consume their own placenta. Now I understand that it's likely to be more the fact that friends joined in on the feast that turned some people off. I do not recommend consumption of another's placenta, but it can be done for health benefits and in this case for honoring this amazing organ--usually, placenta would only be consumed by relatives (eg. the mother of the birthing woman and definitely the child whom it nourished in utero). However animal placenta is put to use even today for cosmetic purposes as it is very healing for conditions such as psoriasis and for retaining general beauty of the skin.

Anyway, the point is that placenta is medicine made by and for the mother. Next time your wife might want to keep more that goodness for herself, as it does not benefit the family so much as it helps her have a better postpartum recovery!!

This is my 7th baby (due July 28th, but will likely make his/her grand entrance a bit sooner). I have never eaten the placenta. I've buried it, but that's it. I decided it was time to, since this is the last baby. You have convinced me. I fact, I feel a Placenta Party coming on...

Placenta encapsulation is the better way to go, in case there are any soon to be mamas out there wondering one of the best and most natural ways to beat PPD and low milk supplies--just ask women all around the world. It's too bad that this guy had to post such "gory" images--gives those who take this seriously a bad name.

That is absolute genius. As someone who is very curious to try every animal at least once I think that's a very interesting experiment. I can't imagine I could convince any of my female friends to ever agree to such a thing but I'm impressed to see it done.

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Reading your article leaves me feel a bit squeamish, but that was allayed by the fact that you seem to be rationally following mental deductions you made about this particular organ/part/by-product of the human body.

I remember visiting a first-time mother with a medical student friend in a hospital, and witnessing said mother cried for nurse help after some 5 seconds it was expelled (and of course, looking at the placenta squarely staring back at my face from the floor.) Which, to say the least, was a rare privilege, seeing that even the med student had not seen it in life before and she was pestering me with queries about said object all the way back into town.

A friend of mine is a confessed devotee of sheep-derived placenta face cream, which he pilfered from his mother, who looks 39 instead of the nearly-50 worked out from her birth certificate. Not to mention the goals and adventures of various stem-cell research. So placenta, somehow, is useful.

This issue also made me think of it this way. Let's say placenta is an eeek-generator on a level par with poop. I picked up my dog's poop but I'm too scared to fish out a pen that has fallen into the toilet bowl, let alone touch my own.

Knowing the assortment of things that people do with placenta (burn/bury/consume) (maybe that's what BBC stood for), I do realise there is a substantial amount of social conditioning that goes around it. It is not protein that comes from plant sources, nor does it come from animal sources (except if one considers oneself an animal you low-aiming wench), which means it is........... vegan. Strangely vegan. With a zero-mile radius sourcing profile, if it was really yours or your spouse's (by the time one has procreated one has exchanged a substantial amount of bodily fluids and cells anyway, so spouse squeamishness is simply a differently packaged mental barrier). I wonder if Stella MacCartney did, or would be tempted to do something similar with her own.

Well, the time will probably come to me some years in the future, and in the meantime I'll stick to being squeamish. I'll sort out what to do with my own when the time beckons: burn, bury or consume.

Hi dude, I'm a Brazilian boy, and I have a little time doing some strange things as this. But, anyway, It surprised mu so much !

I liked the atittude, recycling things that would be sent to waste is a good way to search for another way inside of this sick $y$tem. And me and some Anarchists ware trying some thing like "freeganism". Thought, I don't knowif is this. We've done asquat in the city center, and picked up many things from wastebaskets and streets. Even a great quanities of food were found, and we took off rotten parts and make some good food. Here in Brazil is many good things going to be taken off.

But, the point is that Even the things we've done here appear a crime for "normal people" ! So, this placenta party chocked me hard, even I thinking its right and some funny, hehehe !

So I have some questions:

1- In the plce that you live, are many people doind this type of material recycle ?

2- You have a good contact with each other, like a "freegan scene" ?

3- If yes, what are the tips to do something like that ? Much anarchists and freegans I know are very occuped with job and school, so we still alone yet...

THANKS FOR ATTENTION ! If you fing some thing helpfull, email me. I posted with google.

I think I'm scarred for life. I get saving the placenta in case your kid gets sick and needs the stem cells, but this is flippin' retarded. For one- it looks like a hell of a lot of work to ingest your own tissue. I'm sure you can find some other, prepared animal product at a butcher with the same nutrient equivalent.

I agree with the attention whore comment. It seems more like a way to prove how much of a hardcore hippie you are. "I'm so in tune with nature I spent two days priming my womb waste to be devoured at a dinner party. Beat that those of you who only make your own clothes, bath once a month and follow Phish around for months in a 60's VW van." What's next? Ingesting your wife's period blood? Use it to flavor your pasta with a little white whine? Seriously. WTF?

If you want to do it, fine, but keep it to yourself. I imagine that would have been your original plan had you been doing it purely for your own best interests, but NOOOO you feel the need to "shock" everyone with your cannibalism. Congrats. Mission accomplished. You win "the most disgustingly natural hippie award" and have managed to creep the hell out of thousands of Internet users to boot. Aren't you a champ?

Hi! Enjoyed the comments nearly as much as your post! :) I lotus birthed with our last and it was really awesome. Was interested in drying and grinding it for capsules but I didn't know how all the herbs, salts and essential oils we rubbed on it would effect the healing properties of consumption. As a vegan I'm both amazed and not suprised your vegan friends had no bowel issues since it's made up of us and the body should easily identify it. Goat's milk is the closest thing to human breast milk which is why that's normally not an issue for folks with dairy issues. One more tidbit for your readers and in case that vasectomy is reversed for some reason ;) if a woman gives birth and begins to hemorrhage AFTER the placenta has been expelled, cut a good chunk off toss it in a blender with some v8 and hot sauce (I don't know why the hot sauce this was what I was told) and whirl it up. Drink it down and it'll slow down and stop the bleeding. This was recommended for me as I had bleed out a bit after our second was born and we planned a homebirth until the twit authorities in Ohio decided to try to make homebirth illegal. So, we ended up with the first full/complete lotus birth in the hosptial in the state of Ohio. My back up OB told me a few weeks ago (nearly 3 years after the birth) he's been trying to talk some people into it but no takers yet.

I'd want to put the 'is the placenta vegan' to a vote...I think she was biased and simply freaked...

Is it strange that this article has actually eased my morning sickness rather than exacerbated it?

I especially get a good laugh at the folks wondering how to procure a placenta (and your subsequent reply).

I don't know if I would ever have the stomach to try placenta, especially if its taste is similar to liver (first and only time I had liver I immediately threw it up; couldn't stand either the taste or texture), however I don't deny the nutritional value it entails.

The idea that freely-given placenta is vegan is an interesting concept, and for my personal beliefs I would be inclined to say it is, merely because it does not involve the harm or prolonged suffering of another creature. On the other hand, perhaps it does. Oh, I'm not going to win that one.

Essentially, I don't believe one organization should make the decision that something is vegan or not for the entirety of the human race. It should be a personal decision, as it is to go vegan in the first place.

I also find it sad that such ignorant, pointless, thoughtless trolling is so equated with Americans. But I suppose one bad apple can spoil the image of the whole lot.

Very interesting. You wouldn't figure there'd be so many willing participants in eating someone else's placenta. It does make me wonder about y'all. ;)

On the other hand, when my third child was born a little over a year ago, my friend took my placenta home, cooked it in herbs, dehydrated it, ground it up, and put it into capsules for me. For the first time in all three births, I did not experience Post Postpartum Depression! That was my main goal in taking the pills- warding off PPD. It also helped increase my milk production, energy, and upped my overall emotions. I still have several pills left in my freezer and I take one or two each time I'm having an overwhelming day or am feeling under the weather. They're invaluable to me.

I am now pregnant with my fourth child, due summer 2011, and I have plans to turn the afterbirth into pills again. I'm so happy to have discovered the miracle of placenta benefits and hope that many others do too.

As a placenta researcher, I first want to say that the placenta is of fetal origin, not mixed fetal and maternal origin. The genetics are all fetal and, though there is a maternal side where it is attached, the origin of the tissue for the formation of the placenta is the blastocyst, which is part of the fertilized egg and thus, you are indeed eating part of your baby's flesh.

All of that said, who gives a fuck what you chose to do with this tissue? It's literally going to be thrown away. I can't understand why anyone else has the right to call you sick or judge you for what you have decided to do.

However, I also can't see how this is remotely vegan. Oh well, none of my business. And it's not harming anyone. Don't we have better things to worry about?

wow. As a midwife in training, this blew my head off! :) I would never, but I don't see any reason as to why not. No one's harmed, and after all, it is your own, so I am rather surprised at the amount of disgust expressed over this. I may be somewhat disgusted, but thats more my problem, isn't it? I wish you and your family all the best, and thanx for broadening my mind further!

I'm a 19 year old who's been a vegetarian all my life, and I'm so glad I found this blog, makes me want to eat the placenta when I have a child, especially as it would allow me to try meet in a why I can accept doesn't change my vegetarian status. Screw the ridiculous haters, they don't understand, I'm afraid you either get the nutty hating vegans who are quite frankly fascist or the the meat lovers, there are rarely people in the middle but I found some! Awesomeness, you can leave a message back through e-mail if you like, I cannot watch blogs for the life of me! queeni_doobly@hotmail.comRiver x

Cool stuff! I'm producing our placenta dinner while reading this. Still have to wait a few months before it comes out though. No butchering of animals involved, pur guilt free meat. If it was good and healthy food for your lovely new born, why throw his/her left-overs in the trash? Bon appetit!

Thanks for this post! I don't want to have children, but if I ever did I've always thought it'd be good to eat the placenta, *as Mother Nature intended us to*. I'm glad to know I'm neither crazy nor alone in that thought! Bon appetit!